Is there a coordinated effort to dilute the meaning of the term Y2K?

During the last few weeks I've noticed an unusual number of public events and stories about "Y2K" that aren't about Y2K at all. Locally, there's been a Y2K carnival sponsored by the city, that was just a carnival. All week, the local news is running a series on the news called Y2K 4U, in which they talk about life in the next century (sic). Tonight will be a piece on gadgets and gizmos of the future.

Answers

Dancr: Ever hear about the little boy walking home in the dark and
whistled to keep up his courage? They are whistling and hoping(just
as I am!). Y2K may not be bad enough to be TEOTWAWKI but it could be
bad enough to hurt people that disregard it.

Nah, I think the effort to dilute the meaning of Y2K has been
diluted.....the herd's smelling somethin' it don't like, and the
crowd control pundits are starting to shift their weight from foot to
foot nervously, too....

however, i think dancr makes a point. "they" are seriously (and
maybe have been doing for a while) making the effort to link any
whacko and unrelated events to Y2K. Come on -- remember when the
girl got kidnapped and raped--they said the kidnappers used Y2K as a
threat to lure her. i believe they are linking religious and
terrorist "millenium" events to the techology issues of Y2K. plus
the flares. plus the comets/asteroids. plus more. just look at the
govt Y2K website/their rumors page has a mix of things--not as bad as
what i have indicated but still blends more than just the techology
side of y2k which is frightening in itself.

To all of those gathered here our thought pattern on Y2K is geared to
IT problems and its effects on commerce/our way of life. However, I
recall one writer who said, "Y2K is a year, not a moment". Whether the
year 2000 is a BITER or involves major changes in our lives, It will
still be the year of Y2K/CDC.

Believe it or not, "Y2K" can also be used in the simple context of The Year 2000, with nary a thought to any computer problems. (Of course, anytime that I use the term "Y2K", I always mean it in terms of the computer bug.)

There's also an official millennium doughnut, pickle, mattress, Vienna sausage and condom.

These days, in fact, about everything imaginable is being hawked in connection with the year 2000. You name it -- cars, beer, milk, spoons, clocks, candy, bath salts, corkscrews, paperweights, dolls, furniture. Indeed, there's a millennium toothpick holder, a millennium bolo tie, a millennium hair dryer and a millennium artificial-bait minnow.

One company even offers a millennium medallion containing soil, water and air from the Holy Land for $16.50. Another sells gold-flecked millennium shoes. They're $2,335 a pair.

But if you're thinking of stocking up on any of these items in anticipation of an increase in value, better think again.

"I doubt, unless it's a very limited edition, that they will gain significant value in our lifetime," said Dale Achabal, a marketing specialist who directs the retail management institute at Santa Clara University. By the year 3000, "this could be some of the hottest merchandise around. But between then and now, the appreciation is a little uncertain."

Will it pay off?

Given that -- and the questionable millennial ties that many businesses are attempting to establish for their products -- it's unclear how much of this stuff will actually sell. Besides, as Jan. 1 rolls around, consumers will already have spent heavily on other things.

"Unfortunately, the millennium is coming at basically the same time as the holiday season," said Pamela Rucker of the National Retail Federation in Washington. "If they're spending hundreds of dollars for Christmas items, I doubt they'll spend the same for millennium items."

Nevertheless, she said of the various Year 2000 marketing campaigns, "it's safe to say it's going to be a multimillion -- if not multibillion -- dollar industry. They've just got everything selling out there."

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has granted 272 registered trademarks for goods or services bearing the word "millennium" or the misspelled "millenium," and the agency is reviewing requests for 1,415 others.

Kelly-Moore Paint Co. of San Carlos, Calif., wants to register the slogan, "coating solutions for the new millennium." Does it really think that will get people to buy paint?

"I would hope so," said Rod O'Neal, the firm's coating marketing manager. "We think we could use it (the marketing phrase) for anywhere from two to five years."

Celebrating and surviving

A considerable amount of millennium merchandise is aimed at New Year celebrants -- particularly those with money. Besides assorted party kits, time capsules, T-shirts, games and alcohol available for the occasion, a set of six Waterford Crystal millennium champagne glasses -- each with a 24-carat gold, hand-decorated rim -- goes for $3,000.

For a little less, consumers can opt for millennium shoes from New York clothes designer Stuart Weitzman. One pair bears the images of a champagne bottle and a bubbling glass. It costs $1,025. Another, encrusted with 14,000 gold-plated crystals, is $2,335.

"People want to do something special for this New Year's," said Weitzman spokeswoman Barbara Kasman. "They also want to do something fun." Are they selling? "Oh yes," she replied, "big way."

By comparison, other millennium offerings seem decidedly mundane.

The Dial Corp. of Arizona boasts the new millennium's "official" luncheon meat, Vienna sausage, chili, hash and sliced dried beef. Dial hopes people worried about the Y2K computer bug will buy the canned meats "to prepare for any possible disruptions," said company spokeswoman Cindy Demers.

A collector's paradise

But for every well-known outfit peddling year 2000 items, dozens of lesser-known entrepreneurs have emerged with their own wares, some promoted as eminently collectible.

That includes a variety of millennium coins, which troubles Don Lynch, who owns San Jose Coin Shop in California. Unless a government issues such things, they tend to have little value, he said. And even government coins can show disappointing appreciation if lots of people buy them. He noted that the 1976 bicentennial quarter is still worth only about 30 cents today.

Even so, Lynch said, coin collecting is so popular that "once the American coins are produced and released next year, (they) will have a tremendous demand ... The U.S. Mint will make a fortune on this kind of stuff."

No collectible is too obscure, it seems, to hook on to the millennium craze. Audrey Trumbold, of the National Toothpick Holder Collector's Society, said it's putting out a commemorative toothpick-holder next year that the group's 800 members can buy for about $50. "They are signed and dated," she said, "so they will be valuable someday."